maybe tiger barbs?

so i'm changing up my tank plans. right now i have a 60g tall hex tank with 7 silver dollars and a red tailed shark, but i really want to plant it, so i want to get rid of my silver dollars so my plants don't get eaten up (i've tried putting plants in there and they are always hungry. haha) and the red tailed shark crazy so i figure i'll trade him in for credit too, he is just too mean attacks every fish i've ever had in there even the sd's. i have had beunos aires tetras in there too but i got rid of them because i felt everyone was overcrowded. my water has a ph between 7 and 7.5 . i don't know off hand what the gh is specifically but i think it's a little hard. that cuts out a lot of the s. american fish that i would love to have like a couple apisto's or things like that, and the tank's foot print is too short to house alot of the bigger fish that need more running room.
That all being said i've been considering just getting a small school of some smaller hardy fish that will be easy to take care of and interesting and good looking. i've been really flip flopping around on it. i've though lemon tetras are really nice looking maybe get a bunch of them, but i'm not sold. cardinal tetras would be really nice because i could get a larger shoal of them because they are smaller so that would look cool. my other thought and what i've been leaning towards is tiger barbs. they are definately active and fun to watch as well as being hardy. and their colours look good against a planted tank. and also if i don't get too many (i was thinking about 12-15) it shouldn't need too much up keep. on the other hand if i decide to get anything else they might be aggressive so it limits some of my options again. and also i'm torn because they are pretty common and maybe i want something different. what are your thoughts?

Cruzis are mean for their size (but not to the extent of killing things), so they need robust tankmates. The tigers serve well. Cruzis are also fond of harder, more basic water conditions. I honestly don't know how common they are, though.

As for plants... educate yourself well on the light/nutrient/co2 ratio and your budget, then decide what you want.

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those are some good suggestions, and i'm glad you agree that tigers are cool, they have tons of personallity. i've had danios before and they were nice, and the giant danios really have awesome colour but i feel like they would do so much better in a longer tank. zebras are too plain for my taste, they really just don't pop for me. i'm happy to hear i might be able to get some apistos that wont hate my water though, i was worried i'd wouldn't be able to keep em ever without getting an ro. even still like you said, finding them might be hard. haha i'll prob chill on that for now.

as for plants i already have some plants in a 20g that i'm using as a grow out/quarantine tank. i've got a diy co2 in it and the plants i've got so far are some what i think are jungle vals, a anubias nana that is doing pretty well, anubias minima, a couple java fern, a amazon sword that i actually had in there with the silver dollars which lasted a lot longer than i would have guessed. needless to say, the leaves are all gone. it was probably 12" when i got it with runners coming off, but they would eat all the new leaves first and then the started on the bigger ones and it was game over. so now i'm nursing it back to health. i also have some flame moss which i just got today so i'm excited to get that going. i'm not planning on doing anything too crazy or labour intensive but i'd like to get some taller plants to fill in the middle to the top of the tank my lights arent crazy strong so it shouldn't be hard to keep under control, but we'll see. but i know i can't put anything to needy in right now at least. i'm thinking about making a small platform in the back possibly too, i figure it might be good to fill in the top of the tank. because it's such a tall tank it will be pretty empty up top although i have thought about trying to find some of those giant vals or whatever they are called, the big ones, i want something that will grow up but not so much out so it doesn't choke out the tank. I really wish i had a long tank instead of this tall one but the girlfriend bought it for me so when ever i talk about trading it she gets sad. oh well, i'll have to save up buy another one instead. haha. sweet

Hex tanks have very small foot print. I'd Get a lot less fish than you'd expect from a rectangular 60G tank.

No I totally agree, when I first got this tank I heard the rule of thumb was 1 gallon per inch of fish and I had nothing but problems with stressed fish. My plan this time is to keep it under stocked. I was thinking about 12-15 medium to small sized fish, like tiger barbs. Im hoping to have a mostly care free set up where I can really enjoy the tank as opposed to doing water changes every other day because on of my fish is sick again.

So I ended up getting neon tetras. Not quite what I was thinking at first but I'm happy with my decision. I only just grabbed them today so we will see how they fare but so far most are pretty active, which looks good. Thanks for your suggestions

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